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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Rambling thru the Rhodys

Here are some of the doll quilts I've made in the past. This first one is an Amish Bars quilt. I made it as an exercise to try these colors, using Roberta Horton's book on Amish quilts. The colors didn't come out quite true on this one - the red is more intense than it looks here. My friend Ka~ hand-quilted this one for me. I used this for years on a little doll bed that DH made for me, until a certain cat decided that it was hers. She was way too heavy for the little bed and it finally gave way under her weight!

This quilt is a simple 9-Patch. However, it was made long before rotary cutters and accurate rulers! The blocks are 3 inches. This one is tied from the back. I usually display it at Christmas and then leave it out until Valentine's Day

Here's a close-up (kind of fuzzy - sorry!). You can see this rather dated fabric I used, which will tell you how long ago I made this! (I think I still have some of it! Yikes!)

I love to make doll quilts. They're a great way to practice a technique or pattern without a huge investment of time or fabric, but they're not nearly as challenging as doing a miniature. I use them for display around the house, changing them with the holiday or the season. And the cats particularly like them if they can be laid upon. They don't really seem to care about the quilt if it's hung on the wall!

Tuesday we had a little outing. We went out to lunch with K~ and then we went to see the Rhododendron Species Garden near here. It was wonderful to see everything blooming. The best part was that nearly everything was labeled, so we could start to learn some of the local plants. We walked 2 or 3 miles around this garden, which is 22 acres! I think we saw most of it. Here are a few photos to share the beauty that we saw. (You can click on the photos for a closer look.)

I love the colors in this photo!

This looks so typical of the Northwest, with the Douglas fir in the background.

This is the entry into the garden.

A pink rhody, that smelled like apple blossoms!

These white flowers are Foam Flowers, with, I think, geraniums in the background.

This is a Japanese maple tree by a pond. The pond looks scummy, but the sign said that it is actually covered with a very, very tiny fern. It looked so solid that there were signs warning that it wasn't safe to walk on!

Another rhododendron. This looked like a bouquet, it was so big!

Trillium.

Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour! And I hope everyone has a Happy Mother's Day!